WIth the death of Hal and having seen a production of Evita over the weekend, Did Hal ever give his thoughts about the different Evitas? For example did he like Elaine over Patti? Did he like London over Broadway... things like that...
Kad said: "In his book, he doesn't talk about Patti at all beyond a passing mention that she played Eva."
Patti was also a vocal critic of Hal, calling him a “stager,” not a director. I don’t think they had a great relationship, but Patti did make a nice statement when he passed away.
My husband was Prince's associate casting director during the later years of EVITA.
I don't know what Mr. Prince himself thought, but the other members of the office did not speak well of LuPone. (Their dislike seemed personal; they may have loved her in the show.) So much so that my husband's view of LuPone is still colored today by the office gossip, even though he came in after LuPone had left the show.
Not that anyone asked, but I saw the Broadway version in previews and then caught a matinee in London a few weeks later. The show didn't make much sense to me in NY: between Patinkin and LuPone, there was so much method acting going on I couldn't figure out why they were singing. I preferred the show in London (Marti Webb was the matinee Eva); everything was just a bit bigger and more presentational, which made much more sense to me in a pop opera. Miss Webb didn't look anything like Eva Perón, but she sang and acted the hell out of the part.